Two days after Christmas, two in the afternoon, two passengers must face the storm to prevail against the darkness. Maggie Espinoza needs to get away from Portland, Oregon, from a blown out past and a bleak future. She figures taking the Express train to balmy Southern California to start over is just what she needs. Two days after Christmas while everyone is preparing for the New Year, she makes her escape during the worst blizzard the state has ever seen. Jesse Cabot senses a darkness in fellow passenger Maggie when he sits next to her on the train. Why is she so haunted and broken? When the train suddenly stops in the middle of the blizzard weird things start to happen. Random disappearances, an assault, a body in the snow. It becomes clear it's up to Jesse and Maggie to find the culprit or face the music on the stranded California Express.

It's been a little over a year since Maggie and Daniel "Jesse" Cabot were stranded on the California Express, a terrorizing three days that changed their lives forever. Now in a troubled marriage with a 9-month-old daughter, they are ready for a long-awaited honeymoon to Hawaii - no trains involved. But when they arrive in Portland, Jesse gets a new mission from the CIA, and their plans change for the worst. Another train ride, this time as a bodyguard for eight of the world's most famous billionaires. Under death threats and secrecy, the trip to an environmental summit in Las Vegas is wrought with danger. After a series of tragic events, it's up to Maggie and Jesse to discover a murderer aboard the stranded California Express, and rekindle the romance they once knew, before it's too late.

It’s time for them to answer the ultimate is one life worth the cost of millions? CIA and CDC team Jesse and Maggie Cabot are back – this time to obtain and deliver the vaccine to ARVID-17, the super flu sweeping the country and killing people in the millions. The mission directive was supposed to be get to Portland, retrieve the world’s last vaccine, and deliver to the CDC in San Francisco. But when their train derails and they are left stranded in the Oregon forest, it’s up to Jesse and Maggie to find their own way south; but will their fragile marriage even survive this? An abandoned train in the wilderness might be their lifeline, and they should have expected the malady within.